Sterol compounds play a variety of important roles in biological and industrial systems. For example, certain sterol compounds are provitamins or vitamins and/or lubricants or moisturizers; sterol compounds are also key synthetic intermediates for saponins and steroid hormones. Given the rapidly growing market for nutritional supplements and other products containing sterol compounds, there remains a need for improved systems for enabling cost effective production, isolation, and/or formulation of sterol compounds.